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Exploring software development on the cloud

Experiments in 3D printing: Bathtub Shelf

I first started designing objects for 3D printing using the open-source design software, Blender. However, I found it quite tedious. Blender was designed for a very different purpose: it was designed to model objects in 3D for rendering and animation. Designing a 3D object that is printable is a whole other story. And so with Blender it took me a long time to make 3D models that could be printed.

On the other hand, if a software were designed explicitly to make objects for 3D printing, then it could be much better. It could leave out the hundreds of features that are not needed for 3D printing (shading, lighting, physics effects, etc). And it could only allow operations that resulted in objects that could be 3D printed, making it idiot proof.

I was thrilled to find that such a software existed. And even better, it’s free and runs entirely in a web browser. Cloud-based, yeah! It’s called TinkerCad. It’s super easy to use and optimized for 3D printing. It took me just a couple of hours to custom design a shelf for my bathtub. And Shapeways readily accepted the design and printed it, and in a couple of weeks I got the shelf. Check it out!